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Do universities use ATS tracking software for academic CVs?

In our newest “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

This is probably a very naive question — does anyone know if hiring committees use ATS tracking software on academic CVs? While it seems odd to me that any would, I am not sure if this is a practice anywhere and how it affects CV formatting.

I ask because my (small) university had some professionalization talks for us PhD students/candidates by a guy who included discussion about ATS tracking software. The university, however, did not have him come back for these talks. So now I am a little more confused than I needed to be.

For those of you who may not be aware, ATS software automates initial resume screenings, etc. Its use is apparently very widespread in non-academic job markets, and while it might be used for administrative and/or staff hires at universities, I am not aware of it being used in hiring for faculty jobs in academia.

Do any readers have any experiences/insights to share?

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4 responses to “Do universities use ATS tracking software for academic CVs?”

  1. Don’t feel AI screening is needed

    I guess not, but I have never served on committees. This is just the information I got from my placement officer when doing grad school:

    There are hundreds of applicants. CV is the first round. Those without pubs don’t advance. Then those without good pubs and number relevant to career stage don’t advance. Then pubs and writing samples are read, those without good ones don’t advance. Then at the interview stage, most committee members are familiar with lots of works by interviewees.

    At no stage will AI be needed. But things might change in the future, who knows. Maybe our administrative overlord will just want to change things for the sake of putting things on their CVs.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      Your placement officer has grossly misrepresented how academic hiring in philosophy works. The process you describe has, for example, never happened in my department. While there might be committees that work that way, there are probably more committees where each individual decides how to weigh things at the first stage, and some that explicitly don’t work that way at all. (Though none of this affects whether this software is used, I’ve never heard of that in philosophy but in fields that hire primarily by things like citation#s/conference proceedings/publications maybe it happens?)

      Reply
  2. Charles Pigden

    Well I am with ‘Don’t Feel’ (or ‘Don’t Feel’s’ Placement Officer) and against Anonymous. I have served on several Ssearch committees (not a lot because my department is small and our recruits often stay for extended periods) and what ‘Don’t Feel’s’ Placement Officer describes is roughly the way we work., except that we pay a bit more attention to to the quality of the output at an earlier stage in the process. We don’t pay much attention pedigree, but it is clear from frequent discussions on this and other lists, that a lot of departments do, especially in the snobby USA. And I should add that for us teaching competence is necessary and teaching excellence a plus.

    None of this relates directly to the OP’s question, but I would not want readers to go away with the impression that the unknown Placement Officer’s picture of search committees’ procedures isn’t roughly along the right lines, at least for research-heavy departments. And let me stress that isn’t just based on my personal experience but on many online discussions on this and other lists going back for DECADES. Indeed, there have been debates about the perverse incentives (to academic overproduction) generated by the selection processes that the Placement Officer describes.

    Reply
  3. Helly

    I would also like to say that I’ve served on some committees for TT jobs and for better or worse what Don’t Feel describes is basically how it has worked.

    Reply

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